Anyone notice Obama's forked tongue tonight?

Sent from my iPhone

So if this worked, I just figured out how to post directly from my
phone. Technology is cool.

Sent from my iPhone

Raise them right!

For Alex's birthday, he wanted one thing from family members: Gift Cards.

"To what?" you might ask. Well, I as was happy to hear him say "... to the BYU bookstore!"

atta boy...

So tonight, we ventured down south to Happy Valley and Alex (9) went on a $100 shopping spree at the bookstore. Below is the loot!

No fan is complete without this years "The Quest" for perfection shirt.

My favorite: "Friends don't let friends go the U of U." How true.

He also got a BYU Under Armour shirt for his football jersey.

What fan doesn't have his/her 3X5 foot banner flag?

And lastly, some BYU basketball warm-up pants to go with everything else.

Proud...

Today Alex is 9 years old! Instead of showing photos of his birthday party and opening presents I decided to take a look back at the past 9 years. I know how cheesey it is to say it goes by fast, but it's true!









At nine years old Alex loves: BYU, reading (especially Harry Potter), roller coasters, Arby's, river rafting, football, rockband, cinnamon rolls, basketball, and playing with his friends.

Alex does NOT love: shopping, sandwiches, going back to school after being off track, homework, dancing, cleaning, or the University of Utah.

For his birthday dinner he has requested ribs, garlic mashed potatoes, homemade rolls and pears.

We love you Alex!

Yesterday was the big day. The day we've been waiting for since we found out we were pregnant: The ultrasound. Luckily, I had a good tech who realized that although we are concerned parents who want to make sure our babies are growing and blah, blah, blah, we REALLY wanted to know what we were having.

The vote was split down the middle, Matt and Alex were voting for two more boys and Isaac and I were voting for a boy and a girl.

So she put the goop on my belly and we started looking.


Baby A looked good and was....
A Boy!
Matt breathed a sigh of relief because he definitely didn't want two girls.
He had the hiccups so that was pretty interesting to watch. Measured right on for 19 weeks and 2 days. Perfect.





Next we had Baby B.


This baby was not cooperating and didn't want us to look but we were finally able to get a peek and
yes! A Girl!
I am getting a daughter! Matt just sees $$$$ flashing before his eyes, but I see bows and dresses and getting to shop in the cute girl section that has always eluded me.
Don't get me wrong. I am thrilled the other one is a boy. I want a daughter, but that's it- one daughter. I'm not sure how to do girls yet and I am a pro on boys.

So there you have it. One boy, one girl, two hearts beating wildly... (a country song, if you don't recognize it). The funny part for my family is I would always pretend I had a girl/boy twin when I was growing up. I thought that would be awesome, and here, twenty something years later I got it. I had no idea I would have two other great boys before to help me out though. I feel truly blessed.

Now for those of you who aren't radiologists or ultrasound techs, this pic may be a little hard to decipher so I'll try to help. I asked the tech to try to get a picture with both babies in it and this is it. If you look at the blob on the left side that is one baby's head and his body is stretched across the top. The girl is under him facing down with her head going off the right side of the screen. Anyway, they're kind of big now so it's hard to get them both but here it is nonetheless.

Oh, side note. For any of you who read the previous post about one sibling hitting the other one, I'm pretty sure it was my daughter (that sounds weird) hitting her brother in the head. With all brothers, she's going to need to learn to hold her own and I think she instinctively knows that. You go girl!

Out of roughly 52 Saturdays in a year, I would think that we work about 48 of them shooting weddings. Yesterday, I didn't have a wedding. Jenny shot a reception, but my wedding cancelled and I had nothing all day except to hang with the kids...

Is this really what Saturdays are like? I don't remember. It was fantastic! All you who don't work jobs on Saturday should consider yourselves uberblessed.

The following is what I did on the first Saturday I can remember having off:

I am the offensive coordinator for Alex's football team so the day started with the game. Our boys did great and we had our first victory 26-0. Alex caught amazing passes and even scored as well. Words can't express how I felt out there on that field. We practice 6 hours a week plus games and it was nice to see things finally paying off. My 'Digger Gremlins are awesome!

Next we joined family for lunch at TGIF's after which I watched more football as BYU won a close one in Washington. Go Cougs!

Then I cut the lawn and spent the afternoon on the yard which I thoroughly enjoyed and then we wrapped up the evening getting sno cones and reading Harry Potter.

I apologize for the travel log, but this kind of a day NEVER happens for me. I work. All the time. It is rare that I take an entire day to do what I want. And for yesterday, I am truly grateful!

So for all of you that have ENTIRE days to just do house/yard work and play with the kids, consider yourselves VERY blessed!

Isaac started Kindergarten this year. We knew it would be different, I mean, he is NOT Alex. I was ready. I told the teacher to let me know if there were any "problems" and we would work on them. I meant it, I do want to know. I just didn't know it would be this soon.

I went to pick Isaac up this week (mind you, second week of school) and his teacher comes out to my car and says "why don't you get him loaded in the car so I can talk to you for a minute?"
Really?
Already?
OK.

So she tells me he's really cute and has some great friends (here it comes)... BUT, he is also easily distracted, likes to talk and doesn't pay attention very well. Yeah, I could have told you that.

So we're working on it. We bought some spooky pajamas for a prize if his teacher says he's doing well,
we're role-playing, we're discussing how to be a good student.... it's fabulous. Aaah, parenting.

So then, yesterday Isaac and I stopped at the downtown McDonalds for some lunch. As we were walking in, Isaac very indiscreetly stared at this homeless guy hanging out next to the building and wanted to know why he was there. When we got inside I tried to explain that he didn't have a home and such. I don't think he really understood, but when we left McDonalds Isaac stared again at this poor guy and he yells to Isaac "stay in school".

Thank you homeless man. Thank you for teaching my five-year-old in a way I never could WHY we have to sit in our seats and listen to teacher. We need to stay in school!

Matt: So, Isaac, how was your day.
Isaac: Good, I got some chocolate ice cream at the mall.
Matt: And how was it!
Isaac: Soooo good. It was more chocolater. You know, dad, if it is browner, it is more chocolater. I like browner...

So there you have it. More browner=more chocolater.